The provision of a display on an electronic apparatus is well known, for example, on portable radio telephones and calculators.
The displays are used, typically, to indicate to the user, using alphanumeric characters or other suitable indicators, for example, the status of the electronic apparatus, or information being input into the electronic apparatus, via, for example, a keyboard.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrates a typical display used on a portable radio telephone.
A display 1 typically comprises an array of character display elements 2, each display element 2 being arranged to display a single alphanumeric character 3 or other character. As illustrated, the array comprises 2 rows by 8 columns i.e. a 2.times.8 matrix of character display elements. The display 1 is commonly a liquid crystal display (LCD) although other display types could be used, for example, using light emitting diodes (LED's).
In the present context, the term "character" will be used to mean any alphanumeric character, indicator, sign, symbol or the like capable of being displayed on the display 1, and the term "word" will be used to define one or more characters grouped together without a gap there between e.g. a telephone number, a persons name, or an abbreviation used to indicate status.
Each character display element 2 comprises a smaller array 4, or matrix, of picture elements 5 (commonly referred to as pixels). Typically, a character display element comprises a pixel matrix of 7.times.5 pixels i.e. a matrix of 7 rows of pixels by 5 columns of pixels.
Each pixel can be made to appear either dark or light using well known techniques, so that, by selecting the appropriate pixels 5 in each matrix of each character display element 2 to appear dark, while leaving the others light, allows a character to be displayed in that character display element 2. This is shown clearly in FIG. 1B, which shows how the number "5" can be displayed.
When inputting information into an electronic apparatus, e.g. a portable telephone, the information may be displayed on such a display 1. An example of this is, for example, when a telephone number is input, either for storage or for dialing, in a portable telephone. As each digit is keyed in via the telephone's keyboard, they appear successively in adjacent character display elements starting, for example, from the first character display element i.e. from the left hand side as seen in FIG. 2A, with the next unfilled character display element which is to be filled being indicated by a horizontal cursor 6.
The horizontal cursor 6, can also be made to move along the display 1 to identify a particular character which the user wishes to change e.g. for text editing.
Very often a word, for example, a telephone number, will not totally fit onto the same row. In this case, a technique known as word-wrapping is used whereby, when a word is unfinished when one line is full, the full word is "wrapped" onto the next line, so that the whole word appears on the next line.
This is done so that words do not appear disjointed and are, therefore, easier to read. An example would be where the name "JOE SMITH" is input and displayed. The top row of the display would display "JOE SMI". When the user inputs the next character i.e. "T", rather than this character appearing in the first display element of the next row on its own, the whole of the word input so far i.e. "SMIT" would be "wrapped" on the next line i.e. to appear on the next line.
The display of the characters on the display 1 and the control of the word wrapping is carried out under control of logic within the electronic apparatus e.g. using a microprocessor. The logic is operable to recognize when a row of the display is full and to "wrap" the word input before the end of the row is reached, onto the next row if the word is unfinished when all the display elements on that row are filled. When a word is longer than the length of a display, word wrapping cannot be used and in order to display it, the word is split in two i.e. the word simply continues on the next line. Using a display of eight-columns, a nine character word e.g. the telephone number "012345678" would have "01234567" on the first row with the "8" on the second row. The logic also recognizes when a space is input after a row has been filled i.e. that a finished word coincides with the end of a row of the display and controls the display of the characters so that the first character of the next word is displayed in the first display element of the next row. When the end of a word coincides with the end of a row, the cursor disappears from the right-hand end of the display (because there are no more display elements left). So for example, for an eight-character telephone number "01234567" would fill the first row of the display as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, with one character for each character display element 2, with the horizontal cursor 6 indicating the next display element to be filled. When all the characters have been input, as illustrated in FIG. 2B, the cursor 6 disappears from the display 1 and the top row of the display is full.
The user then inputs a space and the next new word, which, as discussed above begins at the beginning of the next row. As an example, let us say that the next word comprises the single character "8". This is shown as an "8" in the first display element of the next row. To the user, this appears identical to the nine-character word "012345678". It is a problem, therefore, that during inputting or editing of information it can sometimes be difficult for the user to distinguish whether one long word or two separate words have been input and is being displayed, which can be confusing.